The way the illusion of “selfing” works is thusly: the brain processes information non-stop 24/7 and has to decide what is a threat and what is useful. But to whom is all this info. relevant to??

The answer is to the fictitious, purely mental “me” that I have mistakenly identified myself as. But, where did this “me” come from in the first place? Was it there at birth? No. It didn’t show up until around the age of 1-1 1/2 years old.

Once this sense of a separate self shows up, Consciousness automatically identifies with it, and our suffering/confusion/sense of separation/seeking begins. Thus, awakening is realizing that you, Consciousness, are intrinsically whole and cannot be this sense of separation, regardless of how “real” the illusion may feel/seem. Note that the brain did nothing wrong; if it wasn’t suppose to create this sense of a “false me,” it would not appear to happen.

Remember, an appearance is NOT the actual. The actual is changeless. An appearance changes, and thus cannot be your true nature. The good news is that just because an illusion arises doesn’t mean it can’t be seen through and recognized for what it is; an apparent modification of that which is eternally unmodifiable.

I was just watching a documentary on Alan Watts (by his son), and about half-way through there is a clip where Alan points out that the “great depression” in the United States in the early 1900s where men and women had plenty of work, food and housing one day, and the next there were long lines for soup kitchens, work suddenly dried up and many starved and were homeless. And that this was all based upon a mental fabrication of the illusory value of pieces of paper with particular patterns on them, i.e., “money.”

All the apple and orange trees and all of nature’s vast food resources were still there, as was the materials needed to build homes, such as wood, metal, cement, etc., just as they were the day before. The resources needed for human survival and flourishing had not gone anywhere. BUT the man-made (mind-made) story, “the overlay of economics,” suddenly claimed that the pieces of paper (“money”) were not worth what they were 24 hours previously, and so that was the collective experience and thus the “great depression” was imagined into being!!

In the movie, Alan puts the value/meaning of “money” in the same order of reality as the value/meaning of “inches.” Since the concept itself is made up out of thin air, so must any meaning we try to impose upon it.

It means that words are symbols of symbols. To understand this, we must first see that our perspective of Life is just that, a single PERSPECTIVE, and not the Absolute Truth. Our perspective is an appearance. And to give the appearance meaning, we use words. So, the appearance is one step away from reality, and the symbols-words-thoughts we use to explain the appearance is another step away from the Absolute Truth… hence twice removed.

So in a way, you could say that thoughts are lies about the false! Where’s the Truth? It’s changeless which is why nothing can be said about it. The TAO that can be named is not the TAO.

-Michael Jeffreys

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Have you ever noticed that when your computer monitor is turned on (conscious!), you never actually see the monitor itself, but rather ever changing points of colored light in millions of different shades and hues which create an image of EVERYTHING you appear to see, including: huge mountains that appear to stretch for miles, sandy beaches, grey sky, white birds, blue ocean, people (of all colors, ages and sizes), green grass, pouring rain, fast cars, powerful trains, delicate flowers, big trees, green frogs, etc.

But none of these images is actually there, or could be said to exist, beyond the image of it on the screen. In other words, the image you are looking at has no weight to it, even if you are looking at a mountain. The image has no distance to it, even if you are looking at outer-space. The image has no texture to it, even if you are looking at sandpaper.

The illusion looks so real that we forget it’s the play of light on a monitor. However, when you unplug the monitor and look at the dead screen, there is nothing there. Where did all those appearances, movies, stories, facebook posts, you tube videos and thousands of emails go?? Looking at the screen when the computer is off, can you find any evidence that anything ever happened? No.

What if this also applied to the so called world “out there,” the world of phenomenal appearance? That all appearances are just that, appearances. Nothing more. Thus, the highest spiritual understanding: nothing ever happened.

The first step to awakening: Admit that YOU DO NOT WANT TO AWAKEN!! (Father Anthony De Mello was the first person I ever heard say this, and the moment he said it something in me knew it was true.)

Realize that a part of you (mostly unconscious) enjoys the dream and is not ready to give it up. Even if consciously you say, “Yes Michael, I really want to awaken.” Bullshit. You are still identified with maya, and like a drug, are not ready to give it up. Like in AA, admitting that you are addicted to the dream world is the first step to recovery!

When I was discussing this with a friend of mine last night, about it all being a dream, at least he was honest when he said:

“I guess in some ways I still see it as a helpful ‘metaphor’ — not completely accepting it as the way it truly is. I can see it on many levels but probably not completely. I still want to go play tennis and go out on dates as though they’re ‘real’.”

He suspects this is all a dream, but because it pulls the rug out from underneath everything he has spent his life “working for/towards,” it’s just too much to fully accept right now.

Yet, we use phrases like, “It felt like a bad dream…” or, “I couldn’t wait for the nightmare to be over…” or, “And in what dream universe are you living in?”, but in a half-hearted, sort of joking way to keep it at a safe distance.

Either this is a dream or it’s not. Either its ALL real or none of it is. If it is a dream, than death is in fact illusory as well. Again, you can’t have it both ways… well, actually you can… because in a dream, ANYTHING is possible.

You will know when the “shift” has occurred because when the “world” is seen as a dream projection of the ONE unconscious insanely guilty (guilty for imagining it has turned its back on god, even though this is not possible) egoic Mind (without any caveats, exceptions, or “yeah buts…”), there is a lightness and ease in every moment, regardless of circumstances, regardless of what you are doing.

Even if you are sick or suffering, or in pain, there is still enough space where even that is seen as part of the dream. And the running negative commentary that most of us have in our head goes silent… because it has been replaced with a knowing silence and inner love and light that the world, the dream, can never give you.

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This is a dream of duality, in which everything contains its opposite. A beautiful rose contains a dead rose. A beautiful new born baby girl contains an old woman on her deathbed. An apple seed contains a full grown dead apple tree… and every possible permutation in-between!

This is why THIS is a dream, an illusion…because nothing is ever exactly what it seems. Everything is in a perpetual state of becoming something, but never actually arriving! It’s writing on water…

Fear is an Illusion. Why? Because fear = the unknown. But if you are truly nakedly honest in this moment, you know that you don’t know anything or, said another way, every moment is unknown. And if every moment is authentically experienced as completely and magnificently unknown, than where is fear then?

-Michael Jeffreys

p.s. A question from facebook regarding this post:

Yami: “Hi Michael, I must be missing something here… If fear=the unknown, and every moment is unknown, then fear also=the moment?!, that can’t be, could it?. I thought the way to avoid fear is to be in the moment, which is timelss and the only known (compared to future?!). What am I missing here?”

Michael: “If ALL is unknown Yami, than fear becomes an empty word. Just like if everything was BLACK, the word black would have no meaning. Just drop ALL concepts and relax into the timeless peace that you are when you let go of all thoughts. Don’t THINK about doing this, just Do it (thank you Nike!). Effortless BEing reveals the inherent Freedom that you have always been at center, but was forgotten due to conditioning.”